


Protector

by Aria Serif (Mysterie)



Series: Sentinaltale & AUs [15]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Death, F/M, Violence, creators
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 9,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24661354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mysterie/pseuds/Aria%20Serif
Summary: Aria is a Creator, the most powerful being there is in the multiverse. She is the most powerful protector... but something happens... and soon... the most powerful protector must face up to the most powerful of foes... How can she hope to protect her world against the same forces that she wields?
Relationships: Aria/Inky
Series: Sentinaltale & AUs [15]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1726813





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> There are SOME spoilers in here that pertain to Sentinaltale.
> 
> Read at your own peril, you have been warned! 
> 
> Undertale (c) Toby Fox  
> Sentinaltale, Aria, Terminal Error (c) AGuardianOfDreams  
> Echo (c) CrusherP  
> Justice, Naatsoe, Justification, Lolli & "Glitch" (c) Texanna7  
> Ink (c) Comyet  
> Error, Fresh (c) loverofpiggles  
> Dream, Nightmare & Dreamtale (c) Joku  
> Council of Sans (c) UT Community  
> Underfell (c) ???  
> Underswap (c) popcornpr1nce / UT Community  
> Science "Sci" Sans (c) ???

_The clock stopped ticking forever ago.  
How long have I been up?  
I don't know.  
I can't get a grip, but I can't let go   
There wasn't anything to hold on to though.  
  
_

_  
  
_Why was that song the first thing that came to mind? In a place as quiet and as empty as the Anti-Void, it could have been anything. Anything at all, it could have been a cheery song or something about love. After all, she had been married for... how long had it really been? In terms of the multiverse it had been at least thirty years. She glanced over at her sleeping partner with a soft smile. They had been through so much and yet, he had been everything she had ever wanted... everything she'd ever needed and more. There were times she'd fear she'd wake up and it would be just a dream. That she'd be back in that apartment, would be nothing more than her usual, useless self with no one to call her own. No friends, no family, no real responsibilities... and every waking moment was like a dream come true. Maybe things weren't what anyone would call perfect, but she considered it a paradise she still wasn't sure she really deserved. She turned her gaze to the skeletal hand in front of her, the ivory bone was just as it had been the day before, it made her smile inwardly though. She slipped from the bed, careful not to disturb her partner. It wasn't like they didn't sleep, even if they were skeleton monsters and didn't need it often like others, but it was mostly a luxury that was rarely taken when one was part of a small band of monsters that protected an entire universe. Well, that wasn't entirely accurate, the two of them protected the multiverse. There were others, of course, who did the same, but there were far more universes that needed protecting than there were protectors who were out to do so and with each protector there seemed to come a threat of some kind. With the alpha protector, Ink, had come the threat of Error. With Dream, had come the threat of his own brother, Nightmare; with her sons, Justice and Naatsoe the threat that had come had first been in the form of two nonsensical insane monsters.... Terminal Error and Lolli, now the threat was Naatsoe who had been taken over. That was still a problem she needed to ratify, she missed her son... missed the boy she had raised and while she knew he'd never be the same again that didn't mean he was any less her son for it. She paused a moment, looking around at her surroundings; taking in the swirling colors that were around her.

  
  
It was the most unusual of homes by anyone's standards, but this was what her partner needed to recharge; he didn't have a physical soul himself, he was made of creativity. As long as he was surrounded by it he could thrive like one who thrived on food. Of course this meant he didn't really need to eat to sustain himself, but like many who didn't need to eat often or at all, he still did. It was routine to grab the black robe that was hung on a peg and slip it on, but for today she left it where it was. For some reason she had taken to wearing the thing, she had long since forgotten the reason behind why she had started, but she felt most comfortable in it around others usually as it hid her features. She was home though, she didn't really feel the need for it and so changed into a new set of clothes, a simple navy skirt and a tie dye t-shirt before leaving the multicolored bedroom. The colors were ever changing in that room, it was a simple spell that made the colors of the four walls and ceiling change colors every few minutes so it wasn't exactly like one could simply say a wall was red... or blue... because in the next couple minutes it could be pink or orange. The ceiling to the home was an ever changing swirl of colors, it was like watching someone stir colors of paint that never mixed. It was both dizzying and beautiful to watch if one had the time. She did from time to time, but today was not one of the days where she indulged herself in that as she passed through the living room. The walls there were a soft baby blue, the peach couch was so large that it could comfortably fit five Asgore-sized monsters and the dresser that sat along one wall near the door was unusual as well, having drawers of different shapes. On top sat what looked like a doll house, but inside were actual monsters whom had come to live with her. She had adopted them from an AU on a whim and had brought them home. Next to the house was a flower pot where a glitched out flower was fast asleep still. Another one of her "adoptions" so to speak. The flower hadn't always liked the idea that she had brought him home with her rather than leaving him in the place he'd suddenly popped up in, but he had eventually come to enjoy the place and had shown - on rare occasions - his gratitude that she had taken it upon herself to take care of him. She slipped into the kitchen and grabbed the watering can that sat on a counter. She filled it with a bit of fresh water and went back to the flower, quietly letting the liquid dampen the soil for him before slipping back just as quietly into the kitchen without disturbing the flower. 

  
  
That blasted song was still in her mind. It wasn't like she didn't like the song; in fact, it was one of her favorites that she had discovered just before she'd fallen into the multiverse. Still, she had this odd feeling that there was a reason her mind had plucked that song... out of all the ones she knew. That it meant... something. She just wasn't sure what. She wasn't one who tended to think that everything meant something, but on the very rarest of occasions that something out of place happened... she took note of it. In the place that she had once called home, if something like this had happened she'd normally brush it off, in fact she was trying to now but the song was persistent. In the world she had come from, such things weren't abnormal, but the feeling that something was about to happen was; it was a feeling she'd rarely gotten as it was from before she had arrived in the multiverse and when she had gotten this feeling she knew that it meant something; that something was about to happen... usually she could tell if it was good or bad, but as she examined what she was sensing now she felt that whatever it was... she couldn't tell if what was meant to come was good or not. It wasn't a sense of evil or a sense of good... it was just the sense that something was coming, that something was about to happen. _I should be more on guard than usual when I look through the AUs; perhaps they will give me some clue then as to what I need to look out for... though I'm not sure what I'm looking for... but if I see anything unusual I should definitely follow up on it. Whatever it is._ As she pondered as deeply about the possibilities, she automatically made herself some tea; it was yellow flower tea, the closest thing to any herbal tea that was to be had in the multiverse without just taking supplies from some AU or having to look up a reference and draw whatever other tea she might want. That was more work than she wanted to do within the first twenty or so minutes that she had been awake. She wasn't a workaholic, she did have a bit of a lazy streak in her though that was nothing compared to Classic... she chuckled quietly aloud at the thought of the skeleton. He had a reputation of being more lazy than he was. 

  
  
The thing about Classic Sans was that he _was_ lazy, but he did a type of work no one would expect. Aside from trying to fix a machine to bring back the former Royal Scientist, W.D. Gaster, he was also the single most powerful version of Sans there was and the head of the Council of Sans. A secret council, that was the start of the original protectors of the AUs when there had only been five worlds in existence. The original worlds, aside from Classic's - which was known as the Alpha Timeline - had been Dreamtale, Inktale, Underswap and Underfell. In order of power, the most powerful of Sans were: Classic, Ink, Dream, Fell and Swap. The funny thing about the last of those was that no one really took Swap seriously usually because of his attitude, in fact, most monsters and humans tended to call him "Blue" because he acted so much like Classic Papyrus. He seemed innocent enough and often acted it, but the truth was he was far from it and had adapted rather quickly to his important role. Most of the others considered Blue to be a joke and would laugh at the idea that he was a "powerful" Sans, let alone one of the most powerful around. She knew better though, she'd talked with Blue personally and though she often referred to him as Blue rather than Swap, she knew a side of him that most never saw. She had seen through his charade. The thing about her was that she wasn't ordinary by any stretch of the word. She was a skeleton monster whose powers were the strongest in existence because while she could sketch things out with the paintbrush she'd left in the bedroom with her partner, she didn't need it to use her power; she could sketch something with her fingers and it would come to be if that was what she wanted. She had cheated death over and over and over again, both personally and with reviving others. She had even managed to bend time itself. It seemed that there was nothing that was beyond her really. She was like a god among all those who lived in the multiverse and she understood her power and the responsibilities that went with it. It had taken a long time for her to come to terms with what she had become. She was a Creator. It didn't mean she was a god or goddess by any means, but in terms of power to those who lived in the multiverse.... she might as well have been one. It made her the ultimate protector... but it also made her the ultimate threat. She knew good and well that she could erase the whole of the multiverse in the blink of an eye... including the Alpha Timeline too... she could destroy everything... and there'd be no force strong enough to stop her... but she also knew she'd never do that. She had her demons, but she could not be so cruel as to simply dust everyone simply because she thought to do so. She was a monster, in the physical sense, but she was not THAT kind of monster. 

  
  
She thought about this as she sipped her tea, letting her mind wander where it wanted for the time being before she would go retrieve her sketchbook to start her work. She could have done anything, anything at all since coming to the multiverse and she had chosen to be a protector. A guardian. She knew she didn't have to do this. No one had asked her to do it. No one had told her she had to, that it was her responsibility to do so; it was just who she was, more accurately, it was who she had become. She had been nothing in her world, just another face in the crowd, but here, in this place that she called home now.... she was everything. She was who her soul had often cried out to be when she had been in the world that had given birth to her. Her spirit, her soul, her heart had always been one of a guardian, a protector, even if she had never been able to fulfill that role when she had been there. That wasn't the here and now though. Now she had a home that was not only worth protecting, but one that she could with the power she had been granted... with the power that had always lay within her, dormant until the fateful day that had changed her life forever. Even if she could go back to that world, which she knew she couldn't for some reason, she knew she never would. There was nothing for her there, here... in the multiverse, was everything she'd ever wanted and needed. This was home. 


	2. Chapter 2

_Why can't I see?  
Why can't I see?  
All the colors that you see?  
Please, can I be,   
Please can I be,  
Colorful and free?  
_

_  
  
_The call of the Dragon. It sounded good and it was what she knew to be in her soul, her old world it had meant that she was needed to defend the weak on the plane of dreams, but here... could it mean something else? The feeling had stayed with her all day but she was still uncertain as to what it meant... could mean. It wasn't like some feeling of impending doom or like something good; it just, was. She had gone to college as a human, years before she had fallen into the multiverse... a time she didn't think much on for the simple fact that it wasn't really a happy time. Whoever had said money could make a person happy had never met her. For while she'd never gone hungry nor without a roof over her head, clothes or a warm place to sleep, she had not been very happy. She had the luxury of certain things, though she had never been rich nor known more than a handful of "comforts" the rich enjoyed daily or on whims, like fresh fruit that didn't come in a can or that wasn't frown somewhere else. Her clothes had not been brand name that spoke of "fashion current;" most of what she'd had she had either had for years or had bought from the local second hand store because she had always been taught to be careful with her money; to save and save she had. It hadn't made her happy, "splurging" hadn't made her happy... there was almost nothing in the world that did. She had given up on her dreams of being a writer once she'd learned the reality of how hard ti was to find a publisher who could or would accept work from an unpublished, unknown author.

  
  
That was how the world she had come from worked. It wasn't if one was talented, it was just knowing the "right" people and she had been a nobody who had known nobody. No friend nor family she was close with would be in a position to help. She had not known people from school either for she'd moved to a different state for the sake of a good job and her boyfriend, and even if she had not, she'd never been one to have friends. She had been the one everyone picked on. The one no one wanted to be friends with because she was "different"... Later in life it was just that she hadn't tried to make any friends in middle school because she knew no one wanted to be friends with her. By high school she'd just been too focused on studies to care that no one ever tried to be her friend. No one ever talked to her. No one sat with her at lunch unless they had to; it was like she was invisible and she had used that time to hone her skills in writing to escape the world around her. In college she got along well enough with her classmates and had those that she'd liked but she didn't make any friends with them. The only friends she'd had in life that she'd actually considered to be friends had either moved away during child hood or there was the one that had even back-stabbed her. It hadn't been until she'd been in college that she'd met her "church friends" because of her father and her 'friendship' with them seemed to have only lasted until she'd moved away. Then they'd pretty much forgotten about her.

  
  
Her world, for her at least, was not the best; granted she had seen others who were worse off than herself, but that had been no consolation for her emotion driven mind. She had no longer been able to handle being taken advantage of, stepped on, taken for granted, ignored or just generally not cared for by the people she interacted with from day to day. It didn't help that she had been born with a genetic disability; her grandmother, her blood related one, had chronic depression and had ended her own life when Aria's father had been in his early teens. It had managed to skip a generation, her aunt, who was the eldest of her grandmother's four children, had not suffered from it but since the day of her birth it had been a curse on Aria's life. One that no one seemed to realize. School had been torture for her. No one had realized she had chronic depression, along with allergies, so she was unable to enjoy the simple things that most children did. She had not had her very first hamburger until she'd been eight years old due to her allergies being so bad. In fact, she had been born allergic to everything but other human beings, herself, water and oxygen. She had no idea how it was she survived as long as she had as her parents really hadn't had a lot of money and before she was two years old they had divorced. Aside from being an only child with divorced parents, neither of which had a lot of money, she had been set apart from her peers one other way. The Creator of her world, whatever one wanted to call that force or being or whatever, had decided that she would be "special." That she would be able to have power to - on rare occasions - see the future and that she would be able to traverse the plane of dreams. That she was meant to be the champion of a mythical creature, the dragons. Thus she had taken up the name "The Dragon" when she had been fourteen. She'd had to accept some hard truths about the future to come.

  
  
She had come to know that she would never be "normal" in any sense of the word, she had simply been too different and too open to believing in the impossible all of her life. She had been so open to it and so willing to learn that others had shunned her for it and her love for learning had been the downfall of her ability to make friends. She had been bullied by her peers, by the time she was in high school she'd developed a thick skin. By the time she'd managed to get away from those who had made her life a living hell, she'd finished college and had been told by one of her boss' straight up that she needed to "smile more" and that she was "stoic" and she had felt proud really of the last bit. She had spent her entire life trying to hide her emotions from others so that they wouldn't pick on her. So they would stop torturing her... and finally she had managed it. Had succeeded in learning how to control her output of emotions so that no one would know if she was hurting. She was a broken soul. That was what she had been the day she had decided to end it all. To end the torture that was her life. There were not enough "good" things in her life to keep her going and one of the major things that had, her boyfriend, had decided to up and leave her after being with her for two years. She had given him everything she was, had opened herself to him, he had been her first for ... pretty much everything. She had done everything for him and he had taken her for granted and then got sick of her. He'd dropped her like one dropped trash. She hadn't been surprised, after all one of the harsh truths she'd forced herself to realize was that she would never be married. That she would die alone, never knowing what it meant to be to have someone to love her more than she loved herself. That was sort of ironic, in a way, because thanks to her peers she didn't even like herself. Her self esteem was practically non-existent. She had just been waiting for the day that her boyfriend would get sick of her, would find someone else... it had happened and on that day she had emptied a bottle of painkillers and some other things that were around the house. She'd then laid down and let herself drift to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

_What the hell's going on?  
Can someone tell me please  
Why I'm changing faster than the channels on TV  
  
I'm black, then I'm white  
No! Something isn't right!  
My enemy's invisible  
I don't know how to fight  
  
The trembling fear  
Is more than I can take  
When I'm up against  
The echo in the mirror  
  
ECHO  
_

_  
  
_She stared into the cup before her. It was ironic, wasn't it? Almost a bitter irony. She had avoided her own reflection since that fateful day. Never looking into a mirror or a pool of water. Her life had changed. She wasn't that person anymore... well, technically she wasn't even a person at all anymore. It might be more accurate to say that she was no longer that being. That pathetic soul. A soul that had cried out for death. To be taken away from where it dwelled and so, in part, had the wish been granted because when she'd opened her eyes again. It had been... well, a surprise. It hadn't been in the bed she had laid down in. Nor in the small apartment she had called home for those two years. She let her mind continue to drift. It wasn't like she had anything better to do for the moment. Everything had been silent for longer than she cared. The enemies of the past had been laid rest... all but one. She closed her eye sockets. She hadn't known then that he would be her son. She had taken no step to stop the evil that had taken control. That was her mistake. She should have... the sound of a crack startled her from the thoughts and she looked at the cup and sighed. She had cracked another cup and the left over tea was spilling along the table and her phalanges now. With a sudden fit of anger and frustration she picked up the cup and flung it away from her, it ceased to be before it hit the wall. Its contents vanished as well and the tea was gone as well. She trembled. She was not one to show her temper often because she knew anger led to hate and hate led to suffering... how many times had she sullied her soul with dust because of it? Not many, maybe, but too many times... far too many. Especially since she was supposed to be their protector. Their light. _Naatsoe... how could I have been so blind then? Why didn't I do anything?! What kind of protector does nothing as an innocent is killed and consumed?_ She hung her head, fists clenched at her side. This wasn't the first time. It wouldn't likely be the last. At the time she hadn't known the full extent of her abilities, but that was no excuse! He had been a stranger to her... but still... hadn't she swore she would protect the multiverses? Her soul throbbed with an old pain, one she wasn't unfamiliar with. Self-loathing. It had followed her from the place she'd called home.

  
  
There was no starting over here. Even if she could reset everything... wipe away memories of near everyone who knew her... even go back in time and stop things from happening... She wouldn't. For all the pain and suffering that her soul had endured since it had come into being and had taken residence into the human form that had once been her, she had known pain. A broken home. Broken relationships. Loneliness. Despair, Desperation without hope. Even when nearly everything had been taken from her, she had some how survived; in surviving, she had woken in a place that had been both familiar and yet not. Even now, if she thought about it, she could still feel the strange mix of soft and hardness of the flowers beneath her and smell the crisp, clean air that was filled with the scent of a flora she did not know and yet upon seeing it she had known instantly what it was.

  
  
Something wasn't right. It felt like there was a shift. She took out her soul to stare at it, her previous thoughts and feelings discarded for the moment; not that she didn't still feel them but her focus was forced off them so that it was like a distant thought. Almost not her own. Her eyelights focused on the sight before her. It was not one that could be found anywhere else. Most monsters had a white, upside down soul; humans, on the other hand, had a soul that resembled a heart and was one of at least eight colors, depending on what their predominant trait was. As a skeleton monster her soul should have been an upside down white, but she had realized a long time ago she was "special" even now. Yes it was an upside down white as most monster souls were, but at its core was a dim purple soul that looked as if it had more cracks than Andrea's Fault and that it should have shattered. In fact, there was no doubt in her mind that it should have, much as Frisk's had when they had lost a fight with a monster; but her soul never had. Even when she had been human, her soul had some how always persevered. That had been the trait her soul had taken when it had entered here. Perseverance. Oh how she had hated it. She had longed to die since before she had entered the multiverse and the thing keeping her from death in the multiverse had been her soul's trait. 

  
  
Again that song... it seemed to resonate with her. She knew that usually real life didn't just start playing songs for no reason except that the one who heard it often wanted to or something like that but at the moment there was something more to it and she began to pay more attention to the lyrics now. Aria was aware of what the song was really about, it was about someone who was fighting their inner demons and thus the "echo in the mirror" was the artist's way of saying that the fight was something internal rather than an actual fight. It was a song that had been about a fight that could not be seen, but was that true now? The lyrics seemed to have more meaning than that, there was one part that caught her attention. The chorus' single word: echo. The name of the song itself. Echo, what did that mean? What was an echo? A shadow? Something that was like the original but not of the same quality? A copy of the original? That last thought sent a chill through her. A copy. It made her think back on her own actions, that time when her own darkness had made her into the very creature she had swore that she would protect the multiverses from. It was a stain on her soul, a time she could not forget and did not forgive herself for despite that everyone else who had been a part of it had done so. Even when she had gone so far as to try to make herself disappear from the multiverse before that... Her friends, family and her husband had been more forgiving towards her than she felt she deserved. She didn't feel worthy of the kindness and compassion that they had always shown her from the very start. The only one who had ever tried to judge her, was the one who was now as close to her as anyone could get without being married to her. She shook the thought of him away though, trying to focus her thoughts. Why was it that she had felt what she had before? A chill from thinking about a copy? A shadow a... That wasn't very specific, she realized, but it _was_ a clue. Just not one she was expecting. Whatever this threat was that was coming, it was going to be a shadow of something. A copy. It wasn't the threat it could be, but then the question remained, a copy of whom or what? A copy of Error? Galaxy? Fresh? Sci? There were so many more she could simply list off the top of her head, all of which could very well be dangerous to the well being of the multiverses. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm the Bad Guy [Chara Version] (c) Carimelle  
> I'm the Bad Guy original lyrics from Wonder Over Yonder (c) Disney  
> Underbite (c) AGuardianOfDreams   
> Outertale (c) 2mil27 (tumblr)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> arbitrarygood requested to be in this story and appears as Arty

_I’m not your best friend or distraught and clueless._   
_I'm not like all the rest just trying to get by._   
_Nope!_   
  
_'Cause I'm the bad guy_

  
  
"This has got to be stupidest thing ever." 

  
"Aren't you being a bit harsh Luni?" 

  
"Please. A five year old could come up with a place so much better than this. This is like a Candyland rip off."

  
"I have to agree with her, Arty. I think I could do better." 

  
"Really Renee? 'Cause as I recall you had one that was just about them in high school. Wouldn't one like this be up your ally?"

  
"Pff, no. Besides, that was just for fun."

  
"And did you really have to call me Arty?" 

  
"Hey, you're the one who suggested nicknames instead of using our real ones." 

  
"Yeah... but I still don't know how we got here in the first place." 

  
"Beats me, I was on my way to a convention." Luni said with a shrug.

  
"We both were, all I remember is that we were on a bus on the way there and then there was like this loud crash or something..."

  
"Yeah, I recall that too."

  
"Hrmm... I remember something not unlike what you're describing. I was on my way to meet a friend." Arty sighed as he glanced around, none of them looked out of place really... except that they were three humans in what looked like some storybook place with houses and stuff made out of various food. The inhabitants? Characters from a game they all remembered playing, Undertale. That was the reason Luni and Renee had been going to the convention honestly. Luni was dressed up as Chara while Renee looked like Frisk, but with a false Flowey wrapped around one arm. It was obvious they were in costume, while Arty was just wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. 

  
"There's no point in standing around here. Wherever "here" is." She kicked aside what was left of a gingerbread man. The three of them had discovered pretty quickly that wherever "here" was... they had powers. 

  
  
"You really think we should have ganged up on him like that?" Arty asked.

  
"Hey, he attacked us first!" Luni protested, of course that was only partly true... Renee had demanded answers and their food-based opponent had denied them that and had been hostile afterwards. Truth was, Luni had struck first simply because the gingerbread man had been cruel right back to her friend. She hadn't hesitated to strike the other down as if his life didn't matter. Arty kept to himself the thought that he believed the girls had overreacted. He wasn't an idiot, he didn't want them coming after him and he wasn't entirely sure about the powers he had. This was just too unreal! They could summon shields and fire and... and he'd been able to summon a sword to help.... He looked around. The other inhabitants were cowering in fear. He wasn't sure how he felt about it. They were just food after all. Still, weren't they living beings too? The two girls didn't seem to think so. Renee had seemed to think this was some sort of game or something, as she'd pronounced after they'd dealt with the gingerbread Sans. He wasn't sure what Luni thought as she seemed to just be following Ayse; the only one of their little group who hadn't spoken up yet. She seemed mostly to be observing the place, but she had not hesitated to help the two girls either when things had escalated. He couldn't tell what she or Luni were thinking. He was outnumbered here. He followed the three girls as they ventured deeper into the Underground that they had found themselves in; it seemed though that this place didn't have much to it. The only settlement seemed to be in Snowdin and there were only a handful of monsters around. There were no Ruins like in the game and Hotland wasn't at all developed, just a place with a lot of hot lava and very hot due to it. There was no Core or anything.

  
  
"This place is weird." Ayse said after a long moment of silence among the group as they had returned to the barely developed place of Waterfall.

  
"I have to agree, I mean, this place isn't like Undertale at all really." Luni said thoughtfully.

  
"What if it's an AU?" Arty spoke up after a moment.

  
"Hmmm, that is likely considering what we've seen. Still, if it's an AU, why did we land here instead of in the Alpha Timeline?" Renee asked. None of them had an answer.  
"Eh, who cares? We're like, gods, so this is so cool!" Like gods? Wasn't that a bit... presumptuous? Just because they'd won one fight didn't make them gods, at least Arty didn't think so. Before he could speak up again, however Luni spoke again.

  
"How about we go visit Outertale?" The other two agreed readily and he just stayed quiet as Luni grinned and a portal opened. It was a lot like what he'd seen Error do in the comics.

  
"C'mon Arty let's go!" Luni said, shaking the other out of his thoughts.

  
"Oh, uh, sure!" He followed behind. He didn't want to be left behind in the ruins of what had once been an AU... Not that they had decimated the place entirely, but still. They had killed a monster. Not that the monster in question had dusted like normal... though the monster had been a cookie... so what exactly had they expected? What had he expected? Would each new worlds' monsters have their own ways of dying or would other AUs copy the original? Arty didn't think this was a game... it seemed a bit too real to him. Maybe it was some elaborate dream or some hoax... no, not a dream. A hoax did seem plausible yes. That would explain why that Sans had not turned to dust. He hadn't seen any mechanical parts, but what if he was just some advance robot? That would explain that wouldn't it? Yes, that seemed likely, after all, technology was getting more and more advanced. That left the question though... What about their strange new abilities? Had they been experimented on? If so, by who? Why them? 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just Gold (c) MandoPony

_I'm not the bad guy_   
_I'm just a bit surprising_   
_It's not worth losing sleep_   
_It's not worth analyzing_   
_There was a time_   
_Not so long ago_   
_I was just like you_   
_Can you hear my call?_

  
  
Arty looked around at the place Luni had called Outertale. The stars shone wonderfully and while the "forest" was really just rocks made to look like trees it was still a very beautiful place. If this was some dream or something... it was one heck of one that was for sure. He had his doubts about it being a dream but there was no evidence of it being real either. Everyone **knew** magic wasn't real after all, it was just pretend, entertainment or trick of the light... even maybe a fancy illusion done with "smoke and mirrors" as the saying went. That last one seemed right, but who would do something so elaborate and how could they pull it off? VR technology was real as well as sensory technology where all senses could be deprived or rather, blocked from reaching the brain. So it might be even easier to mimic sensations to create an entirely immeasurable world. This had to be the next step up from VR right? Well, whoever was behind this was really good. It seemed so real...

  
  
The three felt as if someone was watching them, but they didn't see anyone, not right away anyway. Arty stuck close to Luni who was following Ayse and Renee. The two girls seemed like natural leaders in how they strode forward, how they spoke; Arty was more of an introvert like Luni seemed to be. At least he didn't feel entirely isolated; he had someone to relate to, although could he really relate to her? He pushed aside the thoughts as he walked over to a false tree. He ran his hands over it, the stone wasn't smooth, it was course and cold. Not freezing cold, but cold nonetheless. He ran over to the three as they almost left him behind while he'd been examining the "tree." He wasn't sure he could trust them to not leave him behind. 

  
"This is just incredible." He muttered to himself. The air itself was pretty crisp, but not unbearably so and he didn't feel like he thought it should in space.  
"don't you lot know how to greet a new pal?" The voice was very familiar and they turned almost as one to face the skeleton behind them. He looked like Sans, but not; he wore a deep blue coat with cotton around the hood and lining the bottom jacket. He also seemed to have a cotton balls at the end of the strings for the hoodie, the sleeves were a paleish yellow and there were a couple of similar colored stripes across the jacket above the pockets. Beneath that was a dark blue sweater and he wore dark navy blue shorts with pale yellow stripes down the front of the legs. The slippers on his feet were a sort of sky blue, though a lighter shade than what one might normally expect. He was extending a hand towards them, the other in his pocket.

  
  
He seemed friendly enough, at least that was what Arty was thinking as he looked at the skeleton. Why were the monsters so short? Shouldn't they be taller or something? That had been a theory that had gone around anyway, but then again, who was he to judge? They'd been to all of ... two places. Although that gingerbread one had been ridiculously short in his mind. He still felt the twinges of guilt about what they had done. What HE had done. It wasn't right. There was something in him that just made him feel so guilty and he was starting to wonder if maybe their actions were going to have some sort of consequence. Wait, why was he thinking that? This was just some game right? There weren't any **real** consequences in games. Still, he felt like there was something nagging the back of his mind about all of this as he watched the girls approach the skeleton. He wondered if this was about to be a repeat of before; if it was... he wasn't sure he wanted to be a part of it. He knew, after all, what the consequence of a genocide run was and technically they had just started one. Okay, well it had been just _one_ monster, but still... there was something that stirred within him that just felt... wrong. He couldn't place it as he watched the three. He hoped that maybe this Sans would have the answers the girls were after.... or maybe he could point them in the right direction. Just... anything to keep from having to fight another version of Sans. Plus, he sort of liked this AU and didn't really want to see anything happen to it. 


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Again (c) Crusher P

_What's done is done  
And nothing's gonna change  
I should be moving on  
But I still feel the same  
  
And it's like every day is a fight for my life  
To get some self control  
And when you've forgotten who I am,   
It just feels, it just feels ...  
I'm nobody at all.  
  
I lost myself hitting the ground  
I tried to scream and made no sound  
I should have known  
It was no use to try and run from  
The cycle of abuse, the cycle of abuse  
_

  
  
Aria sighed. Things hadn't been the same since that incident. It had happened only months ago, but still ... the burdened weighed on her heart ... her soul. She felt that feeling again and rose from the seat at the kitchen and opened a random portal. Stepping through. She needed to see someone she trusted. The one she knew she could talk to, who wouldn't understand, but still listen and not judge her was- Her eyelights took in the destruction. Her work ... her world. 

  
  
"What?" No one should have access to Underbite. It was an incomplete world. She should have been the only one who would be able to reach them because it was her magic that sustained them. HER soul that had brought them into being. How had this happened?! Her eyelights darkened with her sudden anger and a pair of black feathered wings burst from her as magic flared out form her. In her gaze she saw the ones and zeros that made up this world. The Code. This made up every world, every au, every multiverse that ever existed. She had learned the talent recently from a friend she had made in the multiverse. Everything around her began to revert back to what it had been before. The burned parts of the world disappeared and everything was remade, like hitting reverse on an old vhs tape. Everything went back to how it was. Nearby she watched as her cookie friend was put back together and reformed. Once it was done her magic settled, but the flames of her anger had yet to be satisfied.

  
  
"aria?" 

  
"Ginger. What. Happened. Here?" She bit out, holding her anger back; he did nothing wrong, he didn't deserve this. He had been innocent of any crime. Underbite was meant to be a sanctuary for the guardians. A place for them to rest, to heal, to not have to worry about anyone finding them like Nightmare or any of his gang.

  
  
"i'm not entirely sure ... i just saw these three strangers come out of the forest. two girls and a guy. humans. they didn't like my rule about not eating anything and before i knew it they were setting things on fire and i was crumbs." 

  
  
"Humans? You said they set things on fire? Like with torches?" 

  
  
"not with torches ... fire magic." Aria felt her soul sink. Fire magic. No human could summon fire magic like that without being trained and only a very, very small handful of humans were even capable of it in the first place. Even fewer had been trained. This meant only one thing.   
"why?"

  
  
"Those weren't humans, Ginger. They were Creators. Demons." The frosting disappeared from his gumdrop eyes. He hadn't heard that sort of tone from her ever. He knew it meant something bad. Really bad.

  
  
"what do you want me to do?" 

  
  
"Reassure your people Ginger. I will not let them back here again. This place was built to be a sanctuary. It will remain that way." A green box of code popped up before her with information:  
  
Administrative Access Granted  
  
Underbite  
Status: Sanctuary   
Access: Administrative Magic Code Accepted  
  
World Status: Functional  
  
World Shield: Active  
  
Security Measures: Active  
  
Access Requirement: Permissive Magic Code  
or Administrative Magic Code  
  


  
  
Aria sighed and tapped the "edit" button next to the "Access Requirement." 

  
  
A drop down menu appeared with a list of those who had come recently and access. She went through the logs, okaying almost every one she had seen on the list, pausing when she saw three new logs; the most recent:  
  
  
Unknown_Human_Entity: Luni  
Unknown_Human_Entity: Renee  
Unknown_Human_Entity: Arty

  
  
"So, these are the invaders. She summoned a second window that had log history of code of those who had entered, dates appeared on this green screen. She tapped the correct date and tapped the three names to pull up code on them. Each one, as she suspected, had only a margin of code that surrounded their souls. The barest minimum, which dictated what sort of soul they had. That was it. Nothing else was coded, not their magic, not their bodies, not even the souls themselves, just what color their soul would be when visible. Normally this wouldn't be enough to track most individuals, but Aria wasn't just anyone and Code was very precise. There was always a hidden code underneath the visible code that was a number given to each individual, thus no two humans with a soul trait would have the exact same numerical equation in the Code and thus could be told apart as a separate being from others with the same soul trait. Aria didn't even notice that Ginger had left to do as she'd said as she had worked with the code. She returned to the first green window after having locked into the code of the intruders. She tapped the first "entity" name and another drop down menu appeared:  
  
Allow  
Deny  
Exile

  
  
Denying them access wouldn't be enough, especially not if they figured out how to use Code. She tapped "exile" for each of the three. Until they answered for their crimes, she wasn't letting them in. Especially if they were like Chara from genocidal routes; if they held no remorse she wasn't going to spare them. Creators like this were a threat that couldn't be allowed to exist in the multiverse.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aria, Underskates, Undergrey, Undersung, Underbite, UnderDream, Sentinaltale (c) AGuardianOfDreams/Me  
> Dancetale (c) Trendstars & Sterrenschijnse  
> Hungry Like The Wolf (c) Duran Duran

_Burning the ground, I break from the crowd  
I'm on the hunt down, I'm after you  
I smell like I sound, I'm lost and I'm found  
And I'm hungry like the wolf_

__

_Strut on a line, it's discord and rhyme  
I'm on the hunt, I'm after you  
Mouth is alive with juices like wine  
And I'm hungry like the wolf_

__

_Burning the ground, I break from the crowd  
I'm on the hunt, I'm after you  
Scent and a sound, I'm lost and I'm found_   
_And I'm hungry like the wolf_

With the world on lock down now, she opened a portal and returned back to the Anti-Void. Seething with righteous anger. How dare someone charge into HER world and rip it apart like that! Destroying innocent lives just because they could! _Humans... the most vile of creatures ever to walk anywhere, on any planet, in any place, in any time._ She thought with disgust. Aria had not been human herself for many years though she had started as one. She did not consider herself a human even though her soul trait was a remnant of the humanity that was still within her. She was every inch a skeleton monster otherwise. As it was, her soul was unique in that it was a double soul. A human soul in a monster soul, but it wasn't that she'd stolen any soul to obtain this. No, her soul was that way due to her transformation from human to monster, but a transformation that had not fully taken hold for her human soul had still managed to remain intact despite that it looked like it would shatter at the slightest touch. She knew from experience that her soul wasn't going to shatter. Her soul was as intact as any healthy soul despite its appearance. It refused to shatter. She was the embodiment here of true perseverance. Of someone who beat the odds, not by sheer force, but by having a sheer force of will to reach the goal by going around every obstacle. 

Once there, she brought up the administrative windows to all of her other worlds; Undersung, Underbite, UnderDream, Underskates, Undergrey, Sentinaltale, and began activating the new privileges there too, just as she had with Underbite. Once that was done, she pulled up a code window. She didn't need to speak to it, could just focus her thoughts, but because of the anger inside of her she felt compelled to speak. 

"Administrative Power, Code Access Aria." The green box shimmered then words appeared:

Administrative Power Acknowledged.

Input command.

"Command Search and Find Unknown Entity Luni. Search and Find Unknown Entity Arty. Search and Find Unknown Entity Renee."

Dialogue Box:

Searching .... 

Searching ....

Searching .... 

Searching .... 

Found.

  
Unknown Entity Luni Found.  
Unknown Entity Arty Found.  
Unknown Entity Renee Found.

"Location?" The dialogue box's words changed immediately:

Location: Dancetale Alpha A-S 03172018

"Time frame?" 

Dialogue Box: 2:31:50 AM

Aria turned from the box, dismissing it with a flick of one hand and creating a portal. Dancetale was normally a pacifistic world. There was no genocide option upon its creation. Aria had followed that same restriction when she'd made Underskates, but to know the "demons" were there was just more fuel to the fire that burned in her. She was going to teach them a lesson and if they didn't learn it, there wasn't going to be any second chances.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aria, Sentinaltale (c) AGuardianOfDreams   
> Dancetale (c) Trendstars & Sterrenschijnse  
> When You're Evil (c) Voltaire

_To the gentlemen I'm Miss Fortune  
To the ladies I'm Sir Prize  
But call me by any name  
Any way it's all the same  
  
I'm the fly in your soup  
I'm the pebble in your shoe  
I'm the pea beneath your bed  
I'm the bump on every head  
  
I'm the peel on which you slip  
I'm a pin in every hip  
I'm the thorn in your side  
Makes you wriggle and writhe  
  
And it's so easy when you're evil  
This is the life, you see  
The Devil tips is hat to me  
I do it all because I'm evil  
And I do it all for free  
Your tears are all the pay I'll ever need  
  
_

_  
  
_Arty sat on a bench, watching the girls giggle as they ate their ice cream. Ice cream that they'd stolen from a monster who had a whole cart of it. He really didn't understand why they'd not just bought it... why had they dusted the poor guy? He licked his ice cream. Well, who was he to deny them? It was just a dream. None of this mattered and honestly, it was a lot of fun! He licking his fingers with the last of it when he noticed something several yards away.

  
  
"Hey... what's that?" The two girls looked over to see what looked like a white hole suddenly appear with a ring of swirling colors of every shade imaginable.

  
  
"Beats me." Renee said with a shrug. Before Luni could speak up a figure in black robes emerged from the portal. Lavender twin orbs peered out from the darkness of the robes, a small skull clip was the only thing that wasn't black. The figure was roughly their height, if Arty had to guess. Okay, well he was a little taller than the girls, but that aside, whoever or whatever this being was, they were shorter than he was. 

  
  
"Who or what are you?" Luni asked bluntly when the figure walked over to them. 

  
  
"I'm the Creator of the world Underbite." The three looked at each other dumbly like they had no idea what she was talking about, and it was certainly likely that the figure was female from the voice alone even if there was no other real defining feature to be seen.

  
  
"What now?" Renee asked.

  
  
"That world that was made of baked goods that you trashed. I made that world." 

  
  
"Pfff... are you serious?" Luni asked. 

  
  
"I am. My name is Aria." 

  
  
"And why should we care?" Arty asked suddenly. Just who was this and why did it matter?

  
  
"Because if you continue being reckless, you will have to deal with me."

  
  
"And what are you going to do about it?" Luni challenged.

  
  
"You don't want to find out." 

  
  
"You aren't so tough." Renee scoffed.

  
  
"Try me." Renee strode over and Luni and Arty's eyes widened as Aria not only dodged the punch Renee threw at her, but sent the other girl slamming into the ground.

  
  
"HEY!" Luni rushed over and tried to leap on the figure. Faster than they had anticipated though, a purple brush materialized and the brush end slammed into Luni, sending her tumbling to the ground. Aria dodged back to miss a second blow from Renee who had gotten to her feet. Arty summoned fire, expecting that this would be the end of it but the fire didn't even seem to burn the robes even when it caught the edges of a sleeve. Just WHO was this individual?! 

  
  
"Just who are you and what do you want with us?!" Arty cried out.

  
  
"I told you who I am. You are to cease your reckless behavior. Destroying everything on a whim... for your own entertainment. This world and others are not your play things." 

  
"And if we don't?" Renee asked, wiping dirt from her clothes as she stood up.

  
  
"You deal with me. I am the Guardian of these worlds. The protector of lives. I don't know why you came here or how, and frankly I do not care. You will not rampage as you please. There are no second chances for those like us here and I am not about to let you squander my work." 

  
  
"Us? Don't make me laugh. You're not like us. You're clearly a monster." Luni scoffed.

  
  
"I may no longer have my human form, but I am a Creator. You will find I am not so easily bested as a monster might be. You cannot wear me out and you cannot over power me."

  
  
"That sounds like a challenge to me." Arty said with a smirk. The other two look at each other and nod. Like a single unit they leapt forward with magic attacks. Ice, fire and earth in the form of rocks all at once. 


End file.
